Joel 1:9
in Joel 1Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The meal-offering and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah’s ministers, mourn.
KJV
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.
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This verse in Joel 1
Commentary
7 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off - The meat offering and drink offering were part of every sacrifice. If the materials for these, the grain and wine, ceased, through locusts or drought or the wastings of war, the sacrifice must become mangled and imperfect. The priests were to mourn for the defects of the sacrifice; they lost also their own subsistence, since the altar was, to them, in place of all other inheritance.
This site's exposition
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
on Joel 1:8-10
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth turns the plague from agriculture to grief, a young widow's mourning borrowed for a ravaged land. The meat offering and the drink offering cut off from the house of the Lord marks the plague's deepest wound for a covenant people, worship itself interrupted for want of grain and wine, and the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn because their office has nothing left to bring. The field wasted and the land mourning is stated twice in two verses, the ground itself given the mourner's part alongside the people.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(V. 9 seqq.) The sacrifice and libation from the house of the Lord have perished; the priests, ministers of the Lord, mourn. The land is laid waste, the earth mourns; for the wheat is destroyed. The wine is spoiled, the oil languishes, the farmers are confused. The vintners wail over the wheat and barley, for the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up; because joy has been confounded among the sons of men.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Note, Those that are employed in holy things are therein God's ministers, and on him they attend. The ministers of the altar used to rejoice before the Lord, and to spend their time very much in singing; but now they must lament and howl, for the meat-offering and drink-offering were cut off from the house of the Lord (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The greatest sorrow to the mind of a religious Jew, and what ought to impress the whole nation with a sense of God's displeasure, is the cessation of the usual temple-worship. meat offering--Hebrew, mincha; "meat" not in the English sense "flesh," but the unbloody offering made of flour, oil, and frankincense.
The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off - The crops and the vines being destroyed by the locusts, thee total devastation in plants, trees, corn, etc., is referred to and described with a striking variety of expression in this and the following verses.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הָכְרַ֥ת | hakherat | it has been cut off | H3772 → | 288 times |
| מִנְחָ֛ה | minchah | grain offering | H4503 → | 211 times |
| וָנֶ֖סֶךְ | vanesekh | and drink offering | H5262 → | 64 times |
| מִבֵּ֣ית | mibeit | from [the] house of | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| יְהוָ֑ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אָֽבְלוּ֙ | ʾavelu | they are in mourning | H56 → | |
| הַכֹּ֣הֲנִ֔ים | hakohanim | the priests | H3548 → | 750 times |
| מְשָׁרְתֵ֖י | mesharetei | [the] servants of | H8334 → | 97 times |
| יְהוָֽה׃ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
הָכְרַ֥תit has been cut off
hakheratH3772 →288 times
מִנְחָ֛הgrain offering
minchahH4503 →211 times
וָנֶ֖סֶךְand drink offering
vanesekhH5262 →64 times
מִבֵּ֣יתfrom [the] house of
mibeitH1004 →2046 times
יְהוָ֑הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אָֽבְלוּ֙they are in mourning
ʾaveluH56 →
הַכֹּ֣הֲנִ֔יםthe priests
hakohanimH3548 →750 times
מְשָׁרְתֵ֖י[the] servants of
meshareteiH8334 →97 times
יְהוָֽה׃Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 61:6But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their…
it leads to
- Exodus 19:6
And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”
- 1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- Exodus 19:6
Through
Joel 2:14Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him—grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God.
it leads to
- Jonah 3:9
Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
- Haggai 2:19
Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”
- Jonah 3:9
Through
Joel 2:17Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among…
it leads to
- Psalms 115:2
Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
- Ezekiel 8:16
So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five…
- Psalms 79:10
Why should the nations ask, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations Your vengeance for the bloodshed of Your servants.
- Psalms 115:2
Through
Joel 1:13Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 4:8
So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”
- Jeremiah 4:8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Joel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Joel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.